Rock Rail is delighted to announce the appointments of Jenny Smith as Commercial Manager and Magdalena Winiarska as Finance Manager to support its growing asset management business, which operates alongside its funding, procurement and leasing activities.
Their appointments follow another year which saw Rock develop its position within the rail industry even further, with the successful financing of two of the largest UK new rolling stock transactions in 2019, East Midlands Railway and West Coast Partnership, amounting to a combined value of over £750 million.
Chartered mechanical engineer, Jenny Smith, joins Rock Rail with over 15 years of experience in the UK and international rail industry, broadening the reach of the existing commercial team.
Jenny comes to Rock from Stagecoach where, as Rolling Stock Manager, she was responsible for leading new train procurement, supporting existing fleet modifications and coordinating fleet strategy. Previously, Jenny climbed the ranks at Chiltern Railways, where she gained extensive experience in maintenance, fleet performance and planning.
The asset management team at Rock is involved in all aspects of the design, construction and fleet introduction phases, as well as ongoing operations. It provides a complete range of specialist rail asset management services to manage long term residual value and protect the long-term interests of its institutional investors.
Jenny’s appointment closely followed that of Magdalena Winiarska, who joins the Rock Rail finance team. Magdalena is an ICAEW chartered accountant with over 10 years of experience, predominantly in rail and infrastructure finance.
Magdalena began her career at KPMG, qualifying in 2012, and gaining five years of audit experience, primarily with infrastructure funds and property investors.
Before coming to Rock, Magdalena was a finance manager at Eversholt Rail and was mainly responsible for statutory reporting, tax compliance and group reporting to a Hong Kong based shareholder.
Mark Swindell, CEO of Rock Rail said: “We are delighted to welcome Jenny and Magdalena to the team. Both bring significant rail industry experience and will help strengthen our asset management and finance teams as we focus on delivering an industry leading asset management service to our rail partners and our institutional investors.”
